A big shout-out to Shelagh Rogers and Amnesty International Saskatchewan for retweeting and joining the unsettling conversation. Another big shout out to Jessica Gordon a local community member and one of Idle No More founders. Thank you for your leadership and for joining this conversation.

Over 150 "Unsettling" Things: An
Unwieldy and Never-ending List

1.Learn
your Treaty # or Peace and Friendship Treaty Name.

2.Study a
Treaty Map of Canada.

3.Read
any Treaty between First Nations and the British Crown (Peace and Friendship
and the Numbered Treaties).

7.Consider
your own history of coming to Canada. Sue writes, “Most difficult for me
personally has been exploring, re-viewing my own family story and seeing how I
was brought up by loving, kind people who also believed that white people,
especially Anglo Saxon protestant white people were superior to other peoples.
Then to explore how deeply this was imprinted on me and see evidence of this
each day. Noticing is the first step to change.”

58.Recognize that
naming was and still is part of the process of colonization. Be critical and
aware of the names of things around you. (Thanks, Tamara, and for the next one,
too.)

59.Seek out historical
truths surrounding the names of things (streets, buildings, etc.) in your local
area. For example, if you live in Regina and/or have ever driven down Dewdney
Avenue, do you you know much about the history of Edgar Dewdney?

60.Thanks for the
Tweet, Shelagh Rogers, “To help get to 100, here are a few. Follow
@CBC_Aboriginal, RT @GregoryScofield’s Name a Day #MMIW, Follow
@WitnessBlanket”

61.See the Witness
Blanket or at least visit the website and watch the video and read the news
articles. (http://witnessblanket.ca/) (Thanks, Claire for ten strong Unsettling ideas!)

75.I think learning
about the land is really important. Spend time on the land. Build a
relationship with the land and learn from the land. Learn about the place names
before they were re-branded with colonial English or French names. What do the
original names tell us about the land we live on? (Thanks, Nicole for the next
three, too.)

76.Read Keith Basso's
book Wisdom Sits in Places and talk
to Elders about the land...while on the land!

77.LISTEN LISTEN
LISTEN. There is so much to learn from all of the amazing people around you.
Build a network of people and have conversations with them about Treaty
education and Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppressive practices.

78.Look at your own
settler history (if you are a settler) and look at the privileges/opportunities
presented to your ancestors and yourself that were directly denied to others.

79.Learn to name and
locate all reserves in Saskatchewan (Thanks, Bernadette)

81.Work at being an
ally. Dr. Lynn Gehl's work is very helpful if you want to know more about what
it can mean to be an ally: http://www.lynngehl.com/ (Thanks Tamara for the next two points as well.)

82.ALWAYS be open to
learning more. There are many amazing resources, whether it's people, books,
lectures, etc. Dr. Shauneen Pete once talked about accepting these
opportunities to learn as gifts. Be thankful for the gifts.

83.Unsettling is a
journey and it doesn't necessarily have an "end point." Try to
respect that all people are at different places on their journey. In her
thesis, Susan Lang argues that we need to reframe the way we respond to others
who are at different places in their journey; reframing is the process of
“…finding the opportunity to support change, in any given situation, rather
than being part of the negativity. It involves the ability to shed the common
reaction of being offended, or being judgmental, towards someone else’s
ignorance or cultural inappropriateness” (p.114). http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/thesescanada/vol2/BVIV/TC-BVIV-3360.pdf

91.Research
and learn about the “Trust fund” established at the time of the Treaties if you
think it is taxpayers who support FN endeavours. See A Short Note to Correct
Canadian Misconceptions About Indians Living Off “Taxpayer Monies”…http://westcoastnativenews.com/a-short-note-to-correct.../ (Thanks Sue).

92.Watch,
collect, and share some of the incredible stories of settlers who were rescued
from and taught how to overcome the harsh realities of the Canadian winter. I
saw a documentary about some Icelanders. I believe they were essential left
adrift on Lake Winnipeg by those supposedly taking them to their new home. They
were, however, rescued. (Thanks, Mom!)

94.How
about “Participate in an Unsettling conversation” but NOT participate, because
you feel un-empowered? (Thanks, Steve, and for the next eighteen, too.)

95.Challenge
yourself to see peoples’ differences and acknowledge them, appreciate them.
Understanding that not seeing differences is detrimental.

96.Watch
Kevin Annett “UNREPENTANT”. A minister’s struggle with colonization and
residential school system in isolated northern community.

97.Compare
and contrast Apartheid in Africa to First Nations history in Canada. Did you
know the system is based on the Canadian system? Or learn about Apartheid.

98.Go to
the Saskatchewan Legislature and take the tour the government has on First
Nations people/chiefs. What does their perspective denote on Canada’s
(Saskatchewan/First Nations) peoples’ history? Perspectives?

99.Acknowledge
that many Canadians have the view “What happened to Indians 100 years ago has
nothing to do with me, why should I pay for it, why don’t they get over it?”
(tie with 13 and 90).

100.Understand
or discuss the “noble Indian” persona. Ask yourself who that serves.

101.How did
early 50s and 60s media of the “savage” Indian contribute to today’s view of
First Nations people?

103.Discuss
how First Nations veterans were treated differently during and after the war.

104.Compare
and contrast the rights and expectations of women and the First Nations people
prior to the 1960s. Try and include experiences from your parents/grandparents.
If you don’t know any, ask yourself, why?

105.Ask,
can you put a price tag on sacred lands?

106.What is
the historical significance of the phrase “to take the Indian out of the child?”
What ramifications has that had. (Wow, big question, I know, says Steve.)

107.How did
the lawyers benefit from Residential School Claims? Is it right to profit off “genocide”?

108.Where
did the term “genocide” originate?

109.Unsettle
yourself by discussing the Steven Cumberfield/Alex Ternowetskiy murder of
Pamela George. Also the Marshall case.

110.Is the
funding of schools on and off reserves fair?

111.Why are
reserves funded differently? How is the process different?

112.Ask
local colonial people to talk about when they were young. Compare to Indigenous
stories listened to in person or as collected in a book like Treaty Elders of Saskatchewan.

113.Listen
to the stories of Indigenous peoples when they are followed in stores, renting
an apartment, speaking to police, in school as the only brown face, applying
and interviewing for a job, having their children enter competitive sports;
then, share these stories with other settlers. (Thank you Jessica Gordon for
this and the next three points.)

114.Help
the Indigenous peoples of the territory find/record/protect their sacred sites
and traditional areas of ceremony, harvesting, gathering and hunting.

115.Know
the difference between written text and the spirit and intent of Treaty. Hear
the oral history of the negotiations from Indigenous and Elders.

116.Compare
residential schools to today’s foster care and child protection system and keep
in mind that poverty doesn’t equal neglect. Remember the effects of
colonization.

117.Consider
the Justice System. How it keeps Indians in it. Why are so many young Indian
men getting Dangerous Offender designation on the prairies while rapists,
molesters and murders in other provinces aren’t? (Thanks Ron for this and the
next three Points)

118.Why is
the IRS School education process BS? How was it only good PR for the
government?

119.In
Foster Care, why do they take the kids instead of structuring a process to keep
families together?

120.Ron Cyr
says racism is alive and well in Saskatchewan, individually and
institutionally. What is your experience with racism?

121.Explore
delays and lack of response from NIHB on repairs to medical equipment. (Thanks,
Lorianne)

126.Watch “Between:
Living in the Hyphen” by Anne Marie Nakagawa which “examines what it means to have
a background of mixed ancestries that cannot be easily categorized… offers a
provactive glimpse of what the future holds: a departure from hyphenated names
towards a celebration of fluidity and being mixed.” https://www.nfb.ca/film/between_living_in_the_hyphen/

127.Ask Dr.
Valerie Mulholland about the Kitchen Table Pedagogy which she learned about
from Russell Fayant.

136.Support
and care for elders when they lose their short term memory and sometimes find
themselves reliving long term memories from residential school days. Try to
understand what they went through, way back then and even still happening
today. We need to be the change we want to see. It’s not easy, but one day
everyone will live in harmony. (Thank you, SherryAnn for your support of elders.)

137.Go
Forth and Be Awkward in these Unsettling Times. (Sheena) Expect to be sometimes uncomfortable.

138.Consider
“unsettling” Action Research with the McDowell Foundation for Research into
Teaching.

139.Use the
Action Research cycle of questioning, acting, reflecting over and over as you
unsettle your practice.

140.Support
Indigenous leadership within our Canadian institutions.

141.Practice
hand shaking when entering a room or welcoming a guest into a room in honour of
the Treaty Handshake.

142.Whisper
a confession of your privilege, identity, activism as a “liberal white girl”
and consider the cost, the choice, the privilege of choosing the cost.

143.If you
are a settler descendant, acknowledge your own sacred teachings and cultural
ways of being and find bridges of deep connection to Indigenous sacred
teachings and cultural ways of being.

149.Confess
the temptation of being a bully, Lady Bountiful and self-white-tiousness in the
name of anti-racism. (Sheena)

150.Look at
the land you live on through “unploughed eyes”. As a child I used to wonder,
who were these people who walked this land? (Sheena)

151.Listen
to an Indigenous women tell about her children’s experiences in education
(thank you Michelle for the next six too).

152.Listen
for the threads of outsider status, racism and colonialism in education.

153.Ask
whether First Nations students and families feel welcomed in their classrooms,
in their schools, then think about ways to improve that relationship.

154.Go
watch a First Nation student’s hockey game.

155.Find
out about etiquette at round dances and pow wows or ceremonies in the community
and show up (accept an invitation or ask if you need an invitation). Bring your
blanket, shake hands and sit with a family from your school.

156.Have
separate engagement meetings with First Nations families or school community
council meetings so that their voices and concerns aren’t lost amongst the
loud, priviledged, and often white families.

157.Sit
with First Nations families and LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN. Don’t redirect, and
say, “I’m not sure that’s true.” Think, this is their thoughts, feelings and
knowledge, and it’s a gift. What you do with it, is your work.